JPH10149355A - Kana-to-kanji conversion system with voice output - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the operability of a KANA (Japanese syllabary)/KANJI (Chinese character) conversion system by outputting especially KANJI in a voice expression that can be specified by a user when the Roman characters inputted via a keyboard are converted into the character strings including KANJI. SOLUTION: The character strings are inputted in Roman characters via a keyboard 3 and a KANJI conversion key is pushed. Thus, the converted character strings are shown on the screen of a display device 2. At the same time, the reading of the converted character strings are converted into the voice signals and outputted through a speaker 4. If KANJI is included in the converted character strings, the KANJI is outputted in the voice expression that can be specified by a user. The user confirms the propriety of input based on the voices outputted through the speaker 4. When the conversion of desired characters is confirmed, a decision key is pushed to decide the input characters. Thus, a visually handicapped person can produce the general sentences including KANJI by means of a general word processor.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a keyboard input conversion system for a word processor or a personal computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-277799 discloses, as a prior art, the conversion of characters input from a keyboard such as a word processor or a personal computer into kana by voice. Kana conversion has been determined for input keys as an input device that allows for easy auditory discrimination by making the input alphabet and the converted kana reading sound different when converting input characters to kana. Judgment whether or not it is unconfirmed, confirmed, and if further confirmed, analyze the contents and classify long sounds, sound repellents, child letters, etc., and sound quality, pitch, pseudo sound for each And output different voices in combination to enable real-time auditory identification of input data, enabling the visually impaired Input device to be able to verify the conversion content in real-time at the time of character input to the difference and personal computers have been proposed.

[0003]

The above-described prior art has the following problems.

A first problem is that it is impossible for a visually impaired person to input normal Japanese characters mixed with kanji in character input to a Japanese word processor, a personal computer, or the like.

[0005] The reason is that in the conventional conversion method,
This is because there is no means for the visually impaired person to identify the converted kanji and confirm whether or not the kanji has been correctly converted to the target kanji.

[0006] The second problem is that when a visually impaired person inputs normal Japanese characters containing kanji into a Japanese word processor or personal computer, very inaccurate sentences are created.

The reason is that in the conventional conversion method, for example, in the case of a homonymous idiom, only the converted kanji is read as a voice, and the necessary information is designated when the target kanji is specified. This is because it is not possible to feed back to the person (visually impaired). As will be described later, if the kanji is output as it is and the voice is output as it is, for example, confirm that the kana to kanji conversion from the voice output of "Kishagashishasha" to "Reporter has returned" (see FIG. 4) Is extremely difficult.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and has as its object to provide a method for a visually impaired person who has input a kana-kanji character using a keyboard to input a kana-kanji character. It is an object of the present invention to provide a conversion method that enables a mixed character string to be discriminated by hearing and that improves operability particularly.

[0009]

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides an apparatus for outputting a character corresponding to a key input from a keyboard by voice, wherein a character input in Roman characters from the keyboard is mixed with Chinese characters. When the character string is converted into a character string, the kanji is output as a voice in an expression identifiable to the user.

According to the present invention having the above-described structure, in a device for outputting a character corresponding to a key input from a keyboard by voice, a visually impaired person mixes characters input in Roman characters from the keyboard with kanji characters. When converting to a character string, the kanji of the converted character string is output as a voice in an expression capable of specifying the kanji, thereby making it possible to identify the converted kanji.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, and is a block diagram showing a configuration of a computer system to which kana-kanji conversion software according to the present invention is applied.

Referring to FIG. 1, the computer system includes a computer main body 1, a display device 2 connected to the computer main body 1 via a connection cable 6,
A keyboard 3 connected to the computer main body 1 via a connection cable 7 and a speaker 4 (or headphones) connected to the computer main body 1 via a connection cable 8
And a mouse 5 which is a pointing device connected to the computer main body 1 via a connection cable 9. The computer body 1 is a CPU
A data processing device such as a RAM, a storage device such as a RAM (random access memory), an auxiliary storage device such as a hard disk or a floppy disk, and a system for realizing the conversion method according to the present invention, that is, software, a conversion dictionary, and reading of converted characters. And a voice synthesis control system for voice-synthesizing.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the processing operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, first, a character string is input by inputting Roman characters using a keyboard (step S).
1).

When the kanji conversion key is pressed (step S2), the converted character string corresponding to the input character string is displayed on the screen of the display device 2. At the same time,
The reading of the converted character string is converted into an audio signal and output from the speaker 4 (step S3).

At this time, if a kanji is included in the converted character, the kanji is output as a voice in an expression capable of specifying the kanji.

The user confirms whether or not an input is possible based on the sound output from the speaker 4 (step S4).

If it can be confirmed that the character has been converted into the target character (yes in step S4), the enter key is depressed (step S6), thereby confirming the input character.

If it is determined in step S4 that the character cannot be converted, the cancel key is pressed (step S5). Then, the process returns to step S1 to input characters from the keyboard.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of audio output as one embodiment of the conversion method of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, in Example 1, "machine",
The kanji characters "Roll" and "Ri" are referred to as "Vacuum cleaner", "Rolling", and "Rikinori", respectively. Is replaced with another expression that can be specified, and the sound is output.

Similarly, in Example 2, “K”, “Person”,
The kanji characters "return" and "sha" are written in the form of "remarks", "things", "returns" (frogs),
And output audio.

Similarly, in Example 3, "hill", "well",
The kanji characters “shin” and “ki” are called “rolling hill”, “well of well”, “true truth”, and “ Replace with "), and output audio.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining, as a comparative example, an example of audio output in a conventional conversion system which does not employ this system. Referring to FIG. 4, if the kanji is output as it is as it is, it is impossible to specify the converted kanji only from the voice output result.

FIG. 5 shows an example of audio output in another embodiment of the present invention. In this example,
This is for a case where the converted character is not a kanji but a symbol.

Referring to FIG. 5, in Example 1, the symbol "*" is replaced with another expression that can identify the symbol "Komejishishi", and the voice is output.

Further, in Example 2, the symbols "←" and "!" Are replaced with "leading arrow" and "surprise mark", respectively, and sound is output.

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The following effects are obtained.

A first effect of the present invention is that a visually impaired person can create a general sentence containing kanji when using word processing software on a general word processor or a personal computer. That's what it means.

The reason is that, in the present invention, it is possible to identify a kanji such as a converted homophone meaning, which cannot be identified by the conventional method.

A second effect of the present invention is that, when a visually impaired person uses word processing software on a general word processor or personal computer, the accuracy of conversion of general sentences mixed with kanji is improved. That is.

The reason for this is that, in the present invention, when performing kana-kanji conversion, it is possible to confirm when conversion different from the intended one, such as a homonymous idiom, is performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of audio output according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example in which the input shown in FIG. 3 is output as audio by a conventional conversion method as a comparative example.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of audio output according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Computer main body 2 Display 3 Keyboard 4 Speaker (headphone) 5 Mouse 6-9 Connection cable

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A kana-kanji conversion system with voice output for outputting a character corresponding to a key input from a keyboard by voice, wherein a character input in Roman characters from the keyboard is converted into a character string mixed with kanji. A conversion method for converting a kanji into an expression capable of easily specifying the kanji and outputting the voice. 2. The conversion method according to claim 1, wherein a symbol input from the keyboard is replaced with an expression that can be easily specified and the sound is output. 3. A kana-kanji conversion system with a voice output for outputting a character corresponding to a key inputted from a keyboard by voice, and for a predetermined kanji which is difficult to be distinguished only from its reading, such as a homonymous kanji. A character string for specifying a kanji is registered in advance so as to correspond to the kanji, and when a character input from the keyboard is converted to a character string mixed with kanji, the character string is determined only from its reading. If the kanji contains difficult kanji, the pronunciation of the pre-registered character string for specifying the kanji is output as speech,
A conversion method characterized by the fact that: